Market Update: Bitcoin Price Hits New All-Time High Over $20k

The price of bitcoin surpassed its all-time high touching $20,800 on Wednesday morning (EST). At the time of publication, the crypto asset is up over 6% during the last 24 hours with a whopping $380 billion market capitalization.

• Bitcoin has touched a two-week high reaching $20,800 per coin on Wednesday, December 16, 2020. The price has crushed the previous all-time high (ATH) captured on December 1, 2020, at $19,920.
• After reaching the ATH on Wednesday, nearly 100% of all BTC in circulation is in a state of profit. There is currently 18.5 million BTC in circulation which gives the crypto asset a cumulative market valuation above $380 billion.
• Bitcoin’s hashrate is riding quite high on Wednesday as well, with 142.44 exahash per second (EH/s) processing blocks today. There’s a total of 19 mining pools pointing hashrate at the BTC chain on Wednesday.
• “Bitcoin breaking the $20,000 barrier is a significant milestone,” explained to CEO of Luno, Marcus Swanepoel on Wednesday. “But like with any record-breaking event, it will prompt the question: what’s next? In a year of economic uncertainty, bitcoin hasn’t wavered, outperforming the likes of gold and other stocks and shares, so a further increase in 2021 is certainly on the cards.”
• Scott Freeman, cofounder, and partner at JST Capital, detailed that many of his customers expected BTC to break the record.
• “Many of our clients have been expecting for Bitcoin to surpass its all-time high of $20,000 given the recent news from major institutional players like SGX and Mass Mutual openly endorsing bitcoin,” Freeman wrote on Wednesday. “While this is a major milestone for this nascent asset class, as retail, institutional, and blue-chip investors alike allocate more capital to this space it would not be surprising to see other coins follow in BTC’s footsteps and for this upward trajectory to be sustained into 2021,” the JST Capital cofounder added.
• Yoni Assia, CEO and cofounder of Etoro told news.Bitcoin.com that “$20,000 is undoubtedly a momentous milestone for bitcoin.”
• “Whilst it is easy to focus on the short-term price gains, which are headline-grabbing and attention-worthy, it is also important also to recognise how far bitcoin has come,” Etoro’s Assia added.
• Ayush Ansal, CEO of the hedge fund, Crimson Black Capital, explained that “Public interest in cryptocurrencies will be reignited over the Christmas period, as people start to believe in Bitcoin all over again.”
• “After being in a wasteland since the infamous bull run of late 2017, crypto, and Bitcoin in particular, are back,” Ansal added. “The Covid-19 pandemic has almost certainly contributed to the rebound in Bitcoin. It has changed the order of things and that resonates with many investors right now.”
• At the time of publication, bitcoin (BTC) is swapping for $20,650 after touching the $20,800 high on the exchange Bitstamp. Cryptocurrency proponents and analysts are now waiting to see what happens next and if the crypto asset will continue to perform this way into 2021.

If you want to see the crypto economy’s prices in real-time and check the price of bitcoin (BTC) and hundreds of other digital assets, check out markets.Bitcoin.com.